Bhima Koregaon: 5 activists arrested for alleged Maoist links

30 Aug 2018, 10:02AM ISTSource: TNN

The police raided the homes of nine human rights activists and lawyers in different cities and arrested five of them for suspected Maoist links on Tuesday. Those arrested are poet P Varavara Rao (poet), lawyers Sudha Bharadwaj and Arun Ferreira (lawyer), journalist Gautam Navlakha and Vernon Gonsalves, also a lawyer. This is the second such operation in three months. The arrests were in connection with the violence in Bhima-Koregaon, 30 km from Pune, in January this year, in which Dalit activists had clashed with upper-caste Marathas. According to the police, the speeches made at a conclave (called Elgaar Parishad) organised in Pune, a day before the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon, were one of the triggers for the violence. While some of those arrested are accused of making those speeches, some others have been arrested for funding or organising it.